ORDER :

Abhay Chaturvedi, J.

1. By this order, the preliminary objection raised in S.B. Civil Misc. Appeal Nos. 3367/17, 3371/17 and 3372/17 by learned counsel for the claimants is being decided.

2. The claimants have raised a preliminary objection that the Insurance Company has filed appeal against the impugned award dated 22.06.2017 passed by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Jodhpur in case No. 13/2015 and also challenged the quantum of compensation award by the Tribunal in favour of the claimants but the appellant Insurance Company has not obtained permission to file appeal under the provisions of Section 170 of the Motor Vehicle Act and without permission being granted, the appeal filed by the Insurance Company is not maintainable.

3. Learned counsel for the respondent-claimants relied upon the following judgments which are as under:

(1) British India General Insurance Co. Ltd. vs. Captain Itbar Singh and others 1958-65 ACJ 1 (SC);

(2) National Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Nicolletta Rohtagi and others, (2002) ACJ 1950 (SC);

(3) Josphine James Vs. United India Insurance Co. Ltd. & Anr., MACD (2013) (SC) 309;

(4) ICICI Lombard Gen. Ins. Co. Ltd. Vs. Raj Kumar and Ors., 2015 (1) WLN 38 (Raj.);

(5) United India Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Veerendra Sen & Ors., MACD 2015(3) (All.) 1431;

(6) New India Assurance Company Vs. Indu Bala & Ors., II (2017) ACC 817 (HP)

4. Per contra, learned counsel for the appellant-Insurance Company submitted that the claimants impleaded the Insurance Company as respondent No. 3 in the claim petition, which participated in the trial and hence it has a right to file an appeal against the impugned award passed by the Tribunal without obtaining permission as contemplated in the Section 170 of the Motor Vehicle Act. In the said claim petition, the claim was awarded against the insured as well as insurance company. He further submitted that the position would have been different, if the claim petition was filed only against the Driver and the owner of the vehicle and thereafter the Tribunal might have issued a statutory notice to the appellant-Insurance Company, then, in that case, the permission under Section 170 of the Motor Vehicle Act was required to be obtained before filing the appeal against the impugned award. But in the case in hand, no such statutory notice was given by the learned Tribunal instead of the claimants himself impleaded the appellant-Insurance Company as party respondent. In support of his arguments, learned counsel for the appellant relied upon the judgments of Hon'ble the Apex Court rendered in the case of United India Insurance Company Limited Vs. Shila Datta and Others reported in (2011) 10 SCC 509 and Central Board of Dawoodi Bohra Community and Another Vs. State of Maharashtra and Another reported in (2005) 2 SCC 673.

5. Heard and perused the judgments relied upon by the learned counsel for the parties.

6. Section 170 of the Motor Vehicle Act reads as under:-

"170. Impleading insurer in certain cases-

where in the course of any inquiry, the Claims Tribunal is satisfied that-

(a) there is collusion between the person making the claim and the person against whom the claim is made, or

(b) the person against whom the claim is made has failed to contest the claim, it may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, direct that the insurer who may be liable in respect of such claim, shall be impleaded as a party to the proceeding and the insurer so impleaded shall thereupon have, without prejudice to the provisions contained in sub-section (2) of section 149, the right to contest the claim on all or any of the grounds that are available to the person against whom the claim has been made."

7. The question came for consideration before the Apex Court is as to whether the insurance company can file an appeal against the award without obtaining permission from the Tribunal under the provisions of Section 170 of the Motor Vehicle Act. The Apex Court in the case of National Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Nicolletta Rohtagi